Photos by Larry Edsall

Nathan Proch designed and Chip Foose built this adult-sized Deora II in 2003. It is based one one of the original 16 Hot Wheels, the Deora, designed by Harry Bentley Bradley, the original Hot Wheels designer. The adult-sized car was displayed at the SEMA Show alongside an original 1968 Deora toy

Aaron Black was inspired by the Hot Wheels toy 'Cabbin' Fever.' He started with a 1936 Ford truck cab and front fenders and spent 6 years fashioning the rest of his Cab Over Evolved, which is powered by a 5.9-liter Cummins Turbo Diesel

And one of those toy-inspired cars has been selected as a future Hot Wheels

Editor’s note: Get more news from the 2018 SEMA Show in Las Vegas by checking out our dedicated page for daily updates.

For 50 years, Mattel’s Hot Wheels have provided countless hours of play for children, but they also have inspired adults to create their own grown-up Hot Wheels, and that’s grown up into full-size, road-worthy running vehicles.

As part of its silver anniversary, Hot Wheels staged a 15-city national tour this summer, hosting car shows for those toy-inspired vehicles. At the 2018 SEMA Show in Las Vegas, the cars voted the best at each of those 15 tour stops have been gathered together for a super showcase — and the news that one of them has been selected to be turned into a genuine Hot Wheels toy car.

2Jetz, the creation of Luis Rodriguez, will be shrunk from driver-size to become a real Hot Wheels toy

Hot Wheels were Elliot Handler’s answer to the success of his wife’s Barbie doll. Elliott and Harold Matson founded the company in 1948, taking the Mat from Matson and the Ell from Elliott to provide a name for a company that made picture frames and dollhouse furniture.

When Matson’s health was failing, he sold out to Elliott, with Ruth Elliott joining her husband in management. In 1955, the company sponsored the Mickey Mouse Club television show, and in 1959, it launched the Barbie doll.

Barbie was Ruth’s creation and Elliot wanted a toy with similar appeal to boys. So he hired a car designer from General Motors and a rocket scientist, and that team created Hot Wheels. The Custom Camaro was the first of the 16 Hot Wheels cars to be introduced that first year. Since then, there have been more than 25,000 additional models, with worldwide sales in the billions.